And I've realized something that may be kinda cool (and perhaps already talked about in various other threads):

At certain speeds, the car won't dump into 2nd gear like my Type S used to .. for instance, when I'm at 60mph+, and if I floor it, the car will dump to 3rd and proceed to accelerate .. whereas in my TypeS, I recall being able to drop into 2nd w/ by going WOT in D5, or simply using SS to drop it into 2nd. No such luck on the '04. However, when I use "L" .. it seems that the car will give me those extra super high rpms in 2nd gear to play with rather than just allowing me into 3rd gear. It's a pretty cool feature, but I hesitate to use "L" too much for fear of overdoing it w/ the tranny.

Any thoughts?

 

IMHO, for my own preference, except the acceleration from the stop or emergency braking situation, I'd prefer not to use "L" mode. However, your tranny should be well-protected as long as you have routinly changed oils and done your regular maintanence by all necessary schedules.

After a couple of practice, you will get used to it.

ECU is basically trying it best to protect your tranny and engine overheat... (I don't need to bring those explanation again, ppl should see them many times already) No matter what modes you're using, theoretically ECU won't let you downshift to unsafe gears.




BTW, the bonus thread by TLGator, http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80460


Some ppl love this mode, others don't. It's your choice... My 0.02.